Author: year3

It was fantastic to see all the happy, smiling faces running into school this morning! We hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable half-term break.

This term, our topic focus changes to North America as part of our geography lessons.  In RE, our big question this term is ‘Why do Christians call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’?’ In computing, we will be going on a journey inside a computer to find out what makes it work. In maths, we will be covering three topics – fractions, shape and time.

Term 4 Overview – North America (PDF Download)

At home for maths, we would like the children to focus on their key instant recall facts for the 8x table.  We will also be setting various activities throughout the term on our ‘Learning with Parents’ portal. Can you earn a certificate this term by completing all the activities?

Key Instant Recall Facts – 8x Table (PDF Download)

The Year 3 Team

Year 3 enjoyed their Roman themed day.

We dressed up as Romans.

We designed and made mosaics.

We also made Roman shields.  We researched these first and noticed that only a few colours were used and that they were fairly symmetrical in design.

We also performed our Roman dances and carried out some independent research about the legacy that the Romans left behind.

Look at our fantastic cushions!  The children have worked so hard to learn a variety of different stiches and have demonstrated high levels of perseverance.

We have enjoyed exploring and categorising different types of rock.

We learned about how certain rocks are created. We used dark, milk and white chocolate (sediments) to explain how metamorphic rock is formed.  The Earth can transform igneous and sedimentary rocks into metamorphic.  High pressure and temperature change the rock to metamorphic, this was represented by the melted chocolate.  It then cooled and solidified.  When we cut it open, we saw the different patterns and the internal structure.

Limestone (sedimentary) converts to marble, Shale (sedimentary) converts to slate and granite (igneous) forms Gneiss.

To learn how fossils are formed, we used different types of bread and jelly sweets.  The bread represented the sediments.  We applied pressure using heavy books and left the bread for a few days (to represent thousands of years).  We discovered that, when we removed the sweets (similar to how the animal or plant would have decayed), an impression was left.  This would be filled with mud and sediments to form a fossil.

The children investigated the permeability of different types of soil.  Our investigation revealed that sand let water through the quickest and garden soil ‘held’ the water for longer.

The children designed jigsaw puzzle pieces, which were illustrated with things that are important to us and what links us to others.  These will be joined together with other children and adults in the school to create a large display.

We are looking forward to our next session.

This term, the children have been learning hockey skills, playing games to improve accuracy moving with the ball, passing and shooting.  They enjoyed our team battle today, trying to be the team with the highest score by being the most accurate at shooting.  To start the lesson we played trucks and trailers where one player (truck) controlled the ball, moving all the time, changing direction quickly whilst their partner (trailer) followed closely behind, waiting for the “all change” signal to swap roles.

Our music focus this term is pentatonic scales and melodies as used by the Chinese in their music.  We have listened to some traditional Chinese music and watched dancers perform a dragon dance. As we listened to the music, we expressed how it made us feel through movement. We have been playing pentatonic scales on the chimes and glockenspiels.

The children demonstrated our Christian value of perseverance during our DT lesson this week when they learned how to use cross stitch and applique.  We look forward to developing these skills when we eventually design and make a cushion.

The children revised how to say shapes and colours in French.  They then learned the numbers 1-6 and applied these skills to a board game.  We enjoyed using our French skills to play games.

Today, Year 3 led worship for the whole of KS2 in the hall. The children took charge of the whole assembly, lighting the candle, reading the Bible passage, guiding the other children in their thinking and closing the worship time.

The Bible passage, taken from Matthew, told the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus escaping to Egypt to get away from King Herod.

We thought about how Mary, Joseph and Jesus were refugees in a place where they could not speak the language and did not understand the culture – how frightened they must have been. We related this to refugees today, fleeing from wars, for example from Ukraine and Syria. We thought about how we can extend a hand of friendship to those who are frightened having made dangerous journeys to escape their terrifying situations.

We finished by listening to a song about reaching out to others –  You can reach out with a heart of love – Doug Horley.  Here’s a link to the video to watch at home – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3WhVRC51ls (please note this is an external link to YouTube).